previously refigned to the feeming cuftody of his CHAP. officers so.

LXIII.

the Ge

the Vene

A. D.

Feb. 13.

But the emperor was foon folicited to violate Victory of the treaty, and to join his arms with the Ve- noefe over netians, the perpetual enemies of Genoa and tians and her colonies. While he compared the reafons of Greeks, peace and war, his moderation was provoked by 1352, a wanton infult of the inhabitants of Pera, who discharged from their rampart a large ftone that fell in the midst of Conftantinople. On his juft complaint, they coldly blamed the imprudence of their engineer; but the next day the infult was repeated, and they exulted in a fecond proof that the royal city was not beyond the reach of their artillery. Cantacuzene inftantly figned his treaty with the Venetians; but the weight of the Roman empire was fcarcely felt in the balance of these opulent and powerful republics ". From the ftreights of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tanais, their fleets encountered each other with various fuccefs; and a memorable battle was fought in the narrow fea, under the walls of Conftantinople. It would not be an eafy task to reconcile the accounts of the Greeks, the Venetians, and the Genoefe "; and while I depend on the narrative

52

50 The events of this war are related by Cantacuzene (1. iv. c. 11.) with obscurity and confufion, and by Nic. Gregoras (1. xvii. c. 1-7.) in a clear and honeft narrative. The priest was less refponsible than the prince for the defeat of the fleet.

SI The fecond war is darkly told by Cantacuzene (1. iv. c. 18. p. 24, 25. 28-32.), who wishes to difguife what he dares not deny. I regret this part of Nic. Gregoras, which is still in MS. at Paris.

52 Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xii. p. 144.) refers to the

LXII.

53

CHAP. narrative of an impartial hiftorian "3, I fhall borrow from each nation the facts that redound to their own difgrace, and the honour of their foes. The Venetians, with their allies the Catalans, had the advantage of number; and their fleet, with the poor addition of eight Byzantine gallies, amounted to feventy-five fail: the Genoefe did not exceed fixty-four; but in those times their ships of war were distinguished by the fuperiority of their fize and strength. The names and families of their naval commanders, Pifani and Doria, are illuftrious in the annals of their country; but the perfonal merit of the former was eclipfed by the fame and abilities of his rival. They engaged in tempeftuous weather; and the tumultuary conflict was continued from the dawn to the extinction of light. The enemies of the Genoefe applaud their prowess: the friends of the Venetians are diffatisfied with their behaviour; but all parties agree in praifing the skill and boldnefs of the Catalans, who, with many wounds, fuftained the brunt of the action. On the feparation of the fleets, the event might appear doubtful; but the thirteen Genoese gallies, that had been funk or taken, were compenfated by a double loss of the allies; of fourteen Venetians,

most ancient Chronicles of Venice (Carefinus, the continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom. xii. p.421, 422.) and Genoa (George Stella, Annales Genuenfes, tom. xvii. p. 1091, 1092.); both which I have diligently confulted in his great Collection of the Hiftorians of Italy.

53 See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, l. ii. c. 59, 60. p. 145-147. c. 74, 75. P. 156, 157. in Muratori's Collection, tom. xiv.

ten

LXIII.

ten Catalans, and two Greeks; and even the CHAP. grief of the conquerors expreffed the affurance and habit of more decifive victories. Pifani confeffed his defeat, by retiring into a fortified har bour, from whence, under the pretext of the orders of the fenate, he steered with a broken and flying fquadron for the ifle of Candia, and abandoned to his rivals the fovereignty of the fea. In a public epiftle *, addreffed to the doge and fenate, Petrarch employs his eloquence to reconcile the maritime powers, the two luminaries of Italy. The orator celebrates the valour and victory of the Genoefe, the firft of men in the exercise of naval war he drops a tear on the misfortunes of their Venetian brethren; but he exhorts them to pursue with fire and fword the base and perfidious Greeks; to purge the metropolis of the East from the heresy with which it was infected. Deserted by their friends, the Greeks were in- Their capable of refiftance; and three months after the battle, the emperor Cantacuzene folicited and fubfcribed a treaty, which for ever banished the Venetians and Catalans, and granted to the Genoefe a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominion. The Roman empire (I fmile in tranfcribing the name) might foon have funk into a province of Genoa, if the ambition of the repub

54 The abbé de Sade (Memoires fur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 257–263.) translates this letter, which he had copied from a MS. in the king of France's library. Though a fervant of the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his astonishment and grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoefe in the following year (P. 323-332.).

treaty

with the

empire, May 6.

CHAP. lic had not been checked by the ruin of her freeLXIII. dom and naval power. A long contest of one

hundred and thirty years was determined by the triumph of Venice; and the factions of the Genoefe compelled them to feek for domestic peace under the protection of a foreign lord, the duke of Milan, or the French king. Yet the spirit of commerce furvived that of conqueft; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the Euxine, till it was involved by the Turks in the final fervitude of Conftantinople itself.

CHA P. LXIV.

Conquests of Zingis Khan and the Moguls from China to Poland.-Efcape of Conftantinople and the Greeks.-Origin of the Ottoman Turks in Bithynia.-Reigns and Victories of Othman, Orchan, Amurath the First, and Bajazet the Firft. -Foundation and Progrefs of the Turkish Monarchy in Afia and Europe.-Danger of Conftantinople and the Greek Empire.

LXIV.

ROM the petty quarrels of a city and her CHAP. fuburbs, from the cowardice and difcord of the falling Greeks, I shall now afcend to the victorious Turks; whofe domeftic flavery was ennobled by martial difcipline, religious enthusiasm, and the energy of the national character. The rife and progress of the Ottomans, the prefent fovereigns of Conftantinople, are connected with the most important scenes of modern history: but they are founded on a previous knowledge of the great eruption of the Moguls and Tartars; whose rapid conquefts may be compared with the primitive convulfions of nature, which have agitated and altered the furface of the globe. I have long fince afferted my claim to introduce the nations, the immediate or remote authors of the fall of the Roman empire; nor can I refuse myself to thofe events, which,

VOL. XI.

D'd